and  better  material  to  our  High  Schools  ? 


A 


LECTURE 


READ  BEFORE  THE 


MASSACHUSETTS  TEACHERS’  ASSOCIATION 


At  Springfield,  October  19th,  1867, 

BY 

HENRY  F.  HARRINGTON, 


Superintendent  of  Public  Schools,  New  Bedford,  Mass, 


/ 


BOSTON: 

CROSBY  AND  AINSWORTH. 

1867. 


PREFACE. 


This  Essay,  read  under  a somewhat  different  title,  before  the  Massa- 
chusetts Teachers’  Association,  at  their  Annual  Meeting  at  Springfield, 
in  October,  has  been  printed  in  compliance  with  many  requests. 

' i There  is  a growing  uneasiness  in  the  minds  of  the  public  at  the  results 

of  our  Common  School  System.  Few  deny  its  value  ; few  fail  to  ac- 
knowledge the  inestimable  benefits  it  has  conferred.  But  it  is  felt  that  it 
\ 

is  far  from  producing  all  that  it  ought  to  produce : all  that  is  reasonably 
to  be  expected  from  its  enlightened  organization,  its  splendid  equipments 
and  its  vast  expense.  Our  High  Schools,  relatively  by  far  the  most  costly 
of  all,  educate  so  few,  that  they  do  not  affect  the  interests  of  the  masses ; 
and  our  Grammar  Schools,  obsequious  tenders  on  the  High  Schools, 
do  not'  hold  specially  in  view,  as  the  grand  consummation  of  their  pur- 
pose, the  preparation  of  their  scholars,  in  mind  and  character,  for  the 
active  duties  and  relations  of  life.  Those  who  graduate  from  them,  al- 
though all  their  childhood  may  have  been  spent  in  school,  possess  very 
little  of  what  may  be  comprehensively  termed  available  intelligence  and 
mental  resources.  And  the  Common  Sense  of  the  community,  aroused 
to  the  consciousness  of  serious  defect,  is  imperiously  demanding  whether 
such  results  are  inevitable,  or  whether  there  is  a possibility  of  better 
things. 


4 


This  Essay,  in  which  views  that  have  often  been  set  forth  by  enlight- 
ened and  discriminating  Educators,  have  been  systematized  and  brought 
directly  to  bear  on  the  practical  work  of  the  school  room,  is  an  attempt 
at  a reply. 

And  since  all  reforms  of  this  organic  character  are  to  be  effected  by 
the  supervisors  of  our  schools  and  not  the  teachers,  let  me  express  the 
hope  that  School  Committees  throughout  the  State,  when  they  take  this 
important  subject  into  consideration,  will  be  as  free  from  any  undue  bias 
of  prejudice  or  tradition,  as  the  Committee  under  whose  direction  it  is 
my  fortune  to  work ; who  not  only  cordially  welcome,  and  examine 
with  candor,  any  suggestions  that  I may  make,  having  in  view  the  better 
regulation  of  our  schools,  but  whose  own  independent,  progressive  thought 
has  aided  to  give  life  and  form  to  some  of  the  most  treasured  convictions 
to  which  I have  given  expression  in  this  Essay. 

H.  F.  H. 


LECTURE. 


Fellow  Teachers  of  the  Massachusetts  Association : 

When  one  undertakes  an  examination  of  the  High 
Schools  of  our  State,  that  he  may  acquaint  himself  with 
their  condition  and  the  measure  of  their  usefulness,  he  is 
confronted  at  the  outset,  by  two  striking  facts. 

One  is  that  the  number  of  scholars  in  that  grade  of 
schools  is  comparatively  very  small.  For  whereas, 
(using  the  statistics  of  some  of  the  larger  communities 
as  the  basis  of  computation,)  the  average  number  of 
scholars  of  all  the  grades  to  every  thousand  of  the  popu- 
lation is  about  one  hundred  and  forty,  and  the  average 
number  of  Grammar  Scholars  to  the  same  is  sixty-five, 
the  corresponding  average  of  High  School  scholars  to 
every  thousand  of  the  population  is  only  seven. 

The  second  fact  adverted  to  is,  that  the  education  of 
the  great  majority  of  the  youth  who  are  admitted  to  our 
High  Schools  is  found,  when  they  are  put  upon  the  work 
of  those  schools,  to  be  poor  and  inadequate.  The  teach- 
ers of  Higli  Schools,  almost  everywhere,  when  they  con- 
verse on  the  subject,  inveigh  against  the  wretched 
mental  furnishing  of  the  periodical  increment  of  their 


6 


schools.  This  very  essay  originated,  in  part,  in  a ques- 
tion put  by  a prominent  High  School  instructor  in  my 
hearing  some  time  ago.  Said  he,  in  accents  of  the  deep- 
est interest  and  concern,  “Can  we  not  have,  at  the  meet- 
ing of  the  Teachers’  Association  this  year,  in  some  form 
or  other,  a consideration  of  the  causes  why  the  material 
that  comes  to  our  High  Schools  from  the  Grammar 
Schools,  is  so  miserably  incompetent  for  the  studies  of 
the  High  School  course  ?”  It  is  not  that  the  scholars  in 
question  may  not  have  passed  the  prescribed  examination 
for  admission  with  credit  to  themselves,  nor  that  that  ex- 
amination may  not  have  been  based  on  a high  standard 
of  requirement,  according  to  current  notions  of  high  re- 
quirement. Heaven  help  the  teachers  and  scholars  of 
those  High  Schools  where  the  standard  of  fitness  is  so 
low,  that  even  technical  excellence  in  the  ordinary  Gram- 
mar School  branches  is  not  cared  for ; so  that  the  studies 
of  those  schools  are  only  a patch-work  of  elementary 
branches  mixed  up  with  ill-assorted  osophies  and  ologies, 
with  which  latter,  few  of  the  scholars  are  competent  to 
deal  in  any  wise.  Heaven  help  them,  I say,  for  they 
would  seem  to  be  beyond  the  reach  of  all  mortal  aids ! 
No,  I am  not  emphasizing  any  failure  of  this  description  ; 
for  it  is  one  distinguishing  feature  of  the  case,  that,  like 
as  not,  the  more  excellent  a scholar  may  have  been  as  to 
the  technical  requisitions  of  his  examination,  the  less 
qualified  will  he  be  found,  in  some  particulars,  for  an  in- 
telligent grasp  of  the  studies  that  may  be  assigned  him. 
His  defect  may  be  stated,  in  brief,  to  be  a lack  of  sufficient 
mental  development  to  comprehend  the  subject  matter  of 
the  new  fields  of  study  that  he  is  put  upon  in  the  High 


7 


School,  and  too  great  ignorance  of  language  to  under- 
stand the  phraseology  of  his  new  text  books.  Language 
is  the  indispensable  key  to  all  intelligent  study  and  pro- 
gress; and  how  muchsoever  else  the  Grammar  Scholar 
may  have  learned,  he  is  in  general  poorly  equipped  with 
knowledge  of  the  power  and  uses  of  language ; and 
therefore  is  incompetent  to  get  fairly  on. 

And  I ask  now,  are  these  two  facts  irremediable,  or  can 
we,  if  we  be  so  minded,  and  sustained  by  the  requisite 
authority,  substitute  a new  order  of  things  ? The  answer 
to  this  question,  will  constitute  the  substance  of  this 
essay. 

I am  ready  to  reply,  and  hope  to  convince  you,  that 
both  these  defects,  the  former  in  part,  the  latter  alto- 
gether, are  the  direct  consequences  of  a false  system  of 
action,  and  are  therefore  so  far  of  easy  remedy.  I insist 
that  both  result  to  the  extent  that  I have  indicated,  from 
the  strained  and  pedantic  standard  of  qualification  for 
admission  to  the  High  School  which  now  almost  invari- 
ably prevails.  Change  that  standard,  and  you  will  in- 
stantly accomplish  a corresponding  change  of  results. 

In  the  first  place,  I am  quite  sure  that  it  is  not  a fact, 
as  is  generally  assumed,  at  least  in  all  the  considerable 
centers  of  population,  that  few  now  enter  the  High 
Schools  from  the  Grammar  Schools,  because  the  necessi- 
ties, the  sordid  interest,  or  the  indifference  of  the  parents 
of  the  remainder,  forces  them  to  leave  study  for  remuner- 
ative work.  This  is  true  to  a large  extent.  But  I believe 
that  at  least  a hundred  per  cent,  more  than  now  enter  the 
High  Schools  might  be  readily  induced  to  become  mem- 
bers of  them,  if  the  conditions  of  admission  were  what  they 


8 


ought  to  be ; if  they  were  not  artificially  and  arbitrarily 
repressive.  It  is  in  vain  to  tell  me  that  the  parents  who 
now  withdraw  their  children  from  study  at  the  close  of 
the  Grammar  School  course,  are  well  satisfied  with  that 
limit  of  education  for  them.  I have  found  that  the  par- 
ents of  our  scholars,  in  every  phase  of  society,  wherever 
I have  had  opportunities  of  observation,  are  actuated  by 
an  intense  desire  that  their  children  should  enjoy  the  very 
highest  fruits  of  our  Public  School  System.  They  feel 
a satisfaction,  (of  which  pride  is  an  element,  as  well  as  a 
sense  of  benefit,)  at  being  able  to  say  that  their  children 
have  been  members  of  the  High  School,  that  makes 
many  of  the  poor  among  them  willing  to  undergo  the 
severest  privations,  if  only  that  goal  may  be  reached;  and 
furthermore,  there  are  few  parents,  at  least  of  native  an- 
cestry, who  do  not  realize  intensely,  that  it  is  to  cut  off 
their  children  from  opportunity  in  the  very  best,  the 
crowning  period  of  their  educational  progress,  to  with- 
draw them  from  school  before  they  are  from  sixteen  to 
seventeen  years  of  age.  And  by  the  common  consent  of  „ 
educators,  they  ought  to  be  well  nigh  through  the  High 
School,  as  its  studies  are  now  apportioned,  at  seventeen 
years  of  age.  Why,  I ask,  do  they  not  enjoy  correspond- 
ing opportunities? 

In  all  localities  where  a well  considered  school  organi- 
zation prevails,  there  is  in  existence  an  ideal  system  of 
gradation,  whereby  a child  who  enters  the  Primary 
School  at  five  years  of  age  is  to  graduate  from  the  Gram- 
mar School  at  thirteen  or  fourteen  years  of  age ; the 
classes  being  expected  to  move  forward  in  mass,  on  a 
scale  of  minimum  requirement,  that  will  give  average 


9 


ability  and  application  a fair  chance ; so  that  only  in  ex- 
ceptional cases,  where  some  outright  dullard  or  trifler 
would  plainly  be  injured  by  advancement,  is  any  one  to 
be  kept  down.  This  is  the  true  system.  This  alone  can 
secure  the  greatest  good  of  the  greatest  number.  We 
have  no  moral  right  to  cull  out  the  choice,  highly  gifted 
spirits  from  the  several  classes,  and  put  them  rapidly  for- 
ward, instituting  repressive  maximum  examinations,  that 
only  such  gifted  spirits  can  successfully  encounter.  Our 
schools  are  for  the  children  of  the  whole  people,  all  the 
way  through.  True,  there  must  be  stimuli  to  exertion. 
But  let  them  be  derived  from  other  sources  than  the  in- 
terposition of  barriers  impassible  by  the  majority  until 
after  failure  upon  failure,  and  a travel  over  and  over  the 
same  track,  in  hateful  repetition.  According  to  the  sys- 
tem of  organization  to  which  I have  referred,  the  classes 
should  be  put  regularly  forward,  first  through  the  Prima- 
ry Schools,  then  up  through  the  allotted  years  of  the 
Grammar  Schools,  and  then,  tested  by  a sufficient,  but 
not  an  arbitrarily  repressive  ordeal,  into  the  High  School. 
And  under  such  circumstances.  I believe,  as  I have  said, 
that  at  least  as  many  again  would  attend  the  High 
Schools  as  are  found  to  join  them  now. 

And  why  is  it  otherwise  ? It  is  because  of  the  artifi- 
cial, pedantic  character  of  the  examinations  for  admis- 
sion to  the  High  Schools,  which  operates  to  modify 
the  structure  of  the  Grammar  Schools  in  the  most 
vicious  manner,  and  thereby  to  keep  the  bulk  of  the 
scholars  unduly  back,  so  as  to  deprive  them  of  the  oppor- 
tunity of  High  School  instruction.  Take  for  illustration, 
the  working  of  the  Boston  Grammar  Schools  ; and  I in- 


10 


stance  them  particularly,  not  in  any  spirit  of  invidious 
detraction* — I trust  that  I shall  not  be  accused  of  that — 
but  because  the  school  system  of  Boston  is  regarded  as 
standing  at  the  head  of  the  school  organizations  of  the 
State,  and  is  the  object  of  special  inquiry  and  emulation ; 
and  because,  moreover,  the  Boston  Grammar  Schools,  on 
account  of  their  unusual  size,  exhibit  in  a very  striking 
manner,  the  vicious  results  of  which  I have  spoken.  We 
find  the  most  of  those  schools,  comprising  severally 
eight,  ten,  twelve,  fourteen  or  sixteen  rooms,  while  nom- 
inally subdivided  into  four  classes,  corresponding  to  the 
years  allotted  to  the  Grammar  School  course,  virtually  if 
not  confessedly  separated  into  as  many,  or  nearly  as  many 
classes,  as  there  are  rooms  in  the  building.  Passage  from 
room  to  room  of  all  this  number  depends  on  the  results  of 
stated  and  rigid  examinations ; and  the  consequence  is 
that  the  great  majority  are  kept  down,  until  nearly  or 
quite  all  their  possible  school  time  is  exhausted  in  the 
struggle  upwards ; and  that  perhaps,  even  before  they 
have  enjoyed  the  advantage  of  membership  in  the  high- 
est class.  That  highest  class  in  each  school  embraces, 
from  year  to  year,  from  the  very  nature  of  the  case, 
only  the  choice  spirits  of  the  school,  such  as  have  proved 
themselves  capable  of  undergoing  with  success  the  pecu- 
liar training  essential  to  prepare  them  for  the  ordeal  of 
admission  to  the  High  School.  Thus  the  interests  of  the 
school  as  a grand  whole,  are  disregarded  and  sacrificed. 


*1  wish  to  say,  emphatically,  that  my  criticism  on  the  Boston  Schools 
is  to  be  limited  expressly  to  the  points  in  question.  In  other  regards,  I 
rejoice  to  acknowledge  their  preeminent  merits. 


11 


And  we  have  these  further  results;  first,  that  in  many 
if  not  most  instances,  the  ages  of  the  second  class,  destin 
ed  to  remain  two  years  in  the  school,  will  average  about 
the  same  with  the  ages  of  the  first  class,  destined  to  re- 
main only  one  year  in  the  school ; again,  that  the  num- 
ber to  enjoy  the  full  honors  of  graduation  is  painfully 
small  in  comparison  with  the  average  complement  of 
the  schools ; so  that  we  had  in  July  last,  thirty-five  as  the 
largest  number  to  graduate  from  any  Boston  Grammar 
School,  although  several  of  her  Grammar  Schools  have 
an  average  of  from  eight  hundred  to  a thousand  scholars ; 
and  one  school,  in  high  repute,  with  an  average  attend- 
ance of  nearly  nine  hundred,  graduated  only  tioenty-three. 
It  is  a related  fact  that  the  total  admitted  to  the  Girls’ 
High  and  Normal  School  from  all  the  Grammar  Schools, 
for  fourteen  years,  to  1866,  was  only  fourteen  hundred 
and  eighty-five ; and  to  the  English  High  School  for 
the  same  period,  only  thirteen  hundred  and  thirty-eight. 
This  twenty-eight  hundred  and  twenty-three,  for  four- 
teen years,  to  both  schools,  gives  an  average  of  two 
hundred  and  one  per  annum,  which  is  the  whole  number 
to  which  Boston  has  afforded  public  High  School  in- 
struction out  of  an  average  attendance  on  the  Grammar 
Schools  of  nearly  twelve  thousand  for  the  same  number 
of  years.  * We  have  this  further  fact,  that  the  average 
age  of  the  girls  when  they  graduate  from  a Boston 
Grammar  School,  is  sixteen  years  six  months.  The 
average  age  of  the  boys,  up  to  the  present  year,  has 
been  about  fifteen  years  six  months.  Thus,  a good 
part  of  those  years  of  Boston  youth,  which  are  ordi- 
narily expected  to  be  spent  in  the  High  Schools,  is  ex- 


12 


hausted  in  the  Grammar  Schools.  And,  with  due  al- 
lowance for  difference  of  circumstances,  these  lamenta- 
ble results  of  the  strained  and  artificial  examinations  for 
admission  to  the  High  Schools  of  Boston,  may  be  assert- 
ted  to  attach  more  or  less  to  most  of  the  school  systems 
of  the  State  at  large.  And  it  is  a fair  deduction,  that  if 
the  scholars  of  the  Grammar  Schools  were  moved  forward 
systematically,  according  to  a true  organization,  my 
premise  would  hold  good,  viz  : that  as  many  again  would 
be  profitably  enjoying  the  advantages  offered  by  the  High 
Schools  as  are  found  to  enter  them  now. 

There  is  a second  ground  on  which  I base  that  pre- 
mise, comprised  in  a few  casual  but  striking  facts.  Thus 
the  number  admitted  to  the  English  High  School  in  Bos- 
ton, by  a little  extra  attention,  without  any  radical 
change  of  system,  has  been  positively  doubled  within 
three  years  ; and  in  another  of  our  cities,  the  substitution 
of  symmetrical  organization  in  lieu  of  little  or  no  system, 
has  placed  in  the  first  classes  of  the  Grammar  Schools, 
and  in  preparation  for  the  High  School,  full  one  hundred 
. per  cent,  more  scholars,  at  the  same  comparative  stand- 
ard of  attainment,  than  were  ever  in  those  classes  under 
similar  circumstances,  before. 

But  it  may  be  said,  “My  Dear  Sir,  you  are  stultifying 
yourself!  You  begin  with  the  bold  assumption  that  the 
increment  of  our  High  Schools  is,  in  some  respects,  poorly 
cultured,  and  yet  are  complaining  that  the  number  of 
candidates  should  be  so  small.  Surely,  if  they  are  to 
manifest  such  marked  disability,  the  fewer  that  may  pre- 
sent themselves,  the  better.” 

Yes,  if  they  are  to  manifest  such  marked  disability. 


13 


But  for  the  sake  of  the  reputation  dear  old  mother  Mas- 
sachusetts bears  for  discarding  shams  and  conserving  only 
solid  realities,  let  us  reform  the  course  of  instruction  in 
our  Grammar  Schools,  so  that  their  graduates  may  no 
longer  be  branded  with  such  shames.  This  brings  me  to 
my  second  point,  viz  : that  the  defects  of  which  High 
School  teachers  complain  in  the  material  furnished 
them,  are  the  inevitable  consequences  of  the  false  standard 
of  qualification  for  admission  to  the  High  School,  that 
almost  everywhere  prevails.  The  questions  now  annual- 
ly  prepared  as  tests  of  qualification,  bear  about  as  close 
a relation  to  the  rounded,  juicy,  comprehensive  fruits  of  a 
genuine  culture,  as  the  fleshless  skeleton  in  an  anatomi- 
cal museum  bears  to  the  perfect,  conscious  organism  of 
a living  man!  So  many  problems  in  Arithmetic,  so 
many  questions  in  the  technics  of  Grammar,  so  many 
from  among  the  innumerable  details  in  most  Geographies, 
so  many  on  the  bald  facts  of  History,  and  a number  of 
words  to  be  spelled,  culled  from  among  the  hardest  to  be 
found  in  the  pages  of  the  Spelling  Book  or  the  Diction- 
ary,— how  meagre  and  fruitless  they  all  are,  as  expo- 
nents of  that  culture  which  enlarges  and  furnishes  the 
mind,  inspires  it  with  the  power  to  think,  confers  a mas- 
tery over  language,  that  subtle,  mysterious  instrument  of 
thought,  and  brings  it  into  communication  with  the  facts 
and  processes  of  the  working,  progressive  world,  in  which 
it  is  soon  to  take  its  part!  High  School  Examinations 
as  now  conducted,  emphasize  and  make  imperative  all 
that  detailed  lumber  of  the  text  books,  which,  if  useful 
to  be  learned  at  all,  is  so,  only  to  serve  as  a stepping 
stone  to  something  broader  and  higher ; becoming  worse 


V 


14 


than  useless  after  the  higher  point  has  been  reached ; 
and  therefore  then  to  be  dismissed  into  oblivion. 

And  they  necessitate  a rigid  adherence  by  the  teach- 
ers of  the  Grammar  Schools  to  the  mere  technics  of  the 
several  test  studies,  at  the  expense  of  all  others  ; and  of 
the  vitality  and  highest  usefulness  of  those  studies  them- 
selves. It  is  in  vain’to  inveigh  against  this  ; it  is  inevit- 
able. I defy  a teacher,  however  conscientious,  before 
whom  is  forever  looming  up  the  apparition  of  an  arbi- 
trary ordeal  by  which  his  whole  efficiency  is  to  be  esti- 
mated, to  do  justice  to  himself  or  his  scholars.  He  were 
more  than  human  to  disregard  its  cramping  requisitions. 
Mr.  Philbrick,  the  accomplished  and  efficient  Superin- 
tendent of  the  Boston  Schools,  to  whose  enlightened 
suggestions  we  are  all  so  much  indebted,  says  in  one  of 
his  recents  reports,  (first  putting  on  velvet  slippers,  that  he 
may  not  tread  too  heavily  on  anybody’s  pedal  excressen- 
ces,)  “ In  connection  with  the  annual  reports  on  the 
Girls’  High  and  Normal  School,  tables  have  sometimes 
been  printed,  showing  the  percentage  of  correct  answers 
at  the  examination  for  admission  by  the  candidates  from 
each  Grammar  School.  Their  operation  is  attended 
with  serious  evils.  They  show  the  relative  rank  of  the 
examinees  in  only  about  half  of  the  studies  prescribed 
. for  the  First  Class  of  the  Grammar  Schools.  The  con- 
sequence is  that  the  Master  who  is  bent  on  securing  a 
high  percentage  on  the  test  studies,  must  either  neglect 
the  non  test  branches  or  overtask  his  pupils.  On  the 
otherhand,  a Master  who  aims  to  carry  out  the  spirit  of  the 
regulations  and  to  teach  all  the  required  branches  fairly 
and  faithfully,  may  find  himself  placed  low  down  on  the 


15 


comparative  scale.”  Here  we  get  an  insight  to  the  state 
of  affairs,  not  in  Boston  alone  but  everywhere.  It  is  not 
the  comparative  tables  to  which  Mr.  Philbrick  refers,  that 
are  specially  in  fault.  Masters  of  Grammar  Schools 
everywhere,  are  compelled  to  confine  themselves  rigidly 
to  the  test  studies,  lest,  by  some  flaw  of  preparation, 
their  scholars  should  fail  of  success  at  the  examinations ; 
without  necessarily  presupposing  any  spirit  of  competi- 
tion for  a very  high  percentage.  Elsewhere,  with  one  slip- 
per off,  Mr.  Philbrick  writes : “Most  teachers  feel  obliged 
not  only  to  confine  themselves  to  the  text  books,  but  to 
teach  every  thing  in  them ; or  rather  to  require  the  pupils 
to  learn  everything  in  them.  By  this  ill  contrivance  the 
best  teachers  are  hampered  and  cramped.  They  are  con- 
strained, against  their  better  judgment,  to  teach  many 
things  which  they  deem  useless,  and  to  teach  in  a man- 
ner which  they  deem  not  the  best  manner.  Some  are 
driven  by  it  to  perpetrate  the  two  grave  educational 
offences  of  cramming  and  high  pressure,  which  generally 
go  hand  in  hand.”  True,  every  word.  But  no  detailed 
programme  of  instruction  will  remedy  the  evil,  as  Mr. 
Philbrick  suggests.  Programme  or  no  programme,  so  long 
as  the  character  of  examinations  for  admission  to  the 
High  Schools  remains  what  it  is,  technical  teaching, 
cramming  and  high  pressure  will  inevitably  characterize 
Grammar  School  instruction.  For  every  question  missed 
at  such  an  examination  involves  the  loss  of  a certain 
number  of  per  cent,  from  the  summing  up,  and  propor- 
tionately perils  the  result.  And  since  it  is  uncertain 
what  questions  may  be  asked,  what  out  of  the  way  de- 
tails may  be  called  for,  therefore  every  rule,  problem, 


16 


method  and  formulary  in  the  crowded  Arithmetic,  every 
definition,  exception  and  rigmarole  in  the  lumbered 
Grammar,  and  all  the  insignificant  details  in  the  old 
style  of  Geographies,  from  “What  is  the  North  fork  of 
Musquash  River?”  all  through  to  “Which  way  is  Bung- 
town  from  Sleepy  Hollow?”  must  be  forced  into  the 
minds  of  the  candidates.  There  is  no  margin  for  the 
operation  of  any  intelligent  principle  of  selection  and 
abbreviation,  so  as  to  make  room  for  other  important 
studies.  Mr.  Philbrick  says,  moreover,  that  far  too  much 
time  is  wasted  on  spelling  in  the  upper  classes  of  the 
Boston  Grammar  Schools.  But  can  he  expect  anything 
else,  so  long  as  progress  in  spelling  is  to  be  tested 
by  a list  of  the  most  difficult  words  in  the  spelling  book, 
instead  of  by  the  correctness  in  orthography  exhibited 
by  the  examinees  in  their  examination  papers  through- 
out ? 

Such  are  the  consequences  of  the  existing  state  of 
things.  So  does  it  come  about  that  scholars  from 
schools  taught  by  men  of  comparatively  narrow  ability 
and  lean  acquirements,  are  found  to  pass  through  the 
High  School  Examinations,  year  after  year,  with  supe- 
rior eclat  to  those  from  the  schools  taught  by  men  of 
depth  of  power  and  breadth  of  culture.  Because  the 
former  are  the  willing  slaves  of  the  text  books,  to  deprive 
them  of  which,  indeed,  is  to  render  them  impotent ; 
while  the  latter  would  scorn  to  let  the  text  book  become 
their  master ; and  fretting  against  the  shackles  imposed 
on  them,  and  yielding  to  the  inspiration  of  their  nobler 
ideals,  sometimes  break  away  from  their  constraints,  and 
teach  for  a while  in  freedom  and  joy,  at  the  expense  of 


17 


the  formal  technics  and  cumbrous  details,  so  essential  to 
nominal  success.  There  is  nothing  that  the  live,  com- 
petent Grammar  School  teachers  so  long  for  as  freedom ; 
freedom  to  be  themselves,  and  to  teach  according  to  their 
conscience  and  their  power. 

Thus  it  is  that  our  Grammar  Schools,  so  excellent  in 
most  respects,  are  in  part  mistaught ; that  the  scholars 
are  crammed  with  much  that  is  worse  than  useless,  and 
deprived  of  much  that  is  needful  to  a well  rounded  cult- 
ure. I have  shown  the  proximate  cause  of  the  evil. 
There  is  a remoter  cause  ; for  our  High  School  examina- 
tions have  not  become  what  they  are  without  anterior, 
shaping  influences ; and  those  influences  must  be  thor- 
oughly considered  if  we  would  institute  a radical  cure 
for  the  evil.  And  to  that  point  I shall  devote  the  remain- 
der of  this  essay. 

The  root  of  the  whole  matter  is  this.  There  has  pre- 
vailed in  Massachusetts,  from  time  immemorial,  a very 
false  notion  as  to  what  the  object  of  study  is,  and  also 
as  to  the  relative  values  of  the  studies  usually  pur- 
sued in  our  Grammar  Schools.  Take,  for  instance,  one 
from  among  the  red  school-houses  at  the  forks  of  the 
roads,  fifty  years  ago,  on  an  examination  day  after  the 
winter  school.  The  grand,  paramount  requisition  of  the 
Committee,  as  to  the  First  Class,  is  that  they  shall  be 
able  to  “ do  their  sums.”  If  they  show  themselves  quick 
at  figures,  if  they  can  readily  solve  any  problem  that 
may  be  given  them  in  Fractions,  Rule  of  Three,  Interest 
and  Square  Root,  the  master’s  reputation  is  well  nigh  es- 
tablished, however  signally  they  may  fail  in  everything 
else.  But  if,  when  called  up  in  Grammar,  they  can 

9 


18 


promptly  parse  the  knotty  passage  in  Milton  or  Cowper, 
that  the  Committee  has  spent  half  the  previous  night  in 
carefully  selecting  for  the  purpose  of  trying  them,  the 
appropriate  rules  and  definitions  being  reeled  off  memo- 
riter  without  tripping,  and  when  exercised  in  spelling 
succeed  with  such  words  as  Phthisic,  Poignancy,  Here- 
siarch,  Synecdoche,  Caterpillar,  Diaphragm,  Epicycloid 
and  the  like,  the  master’s  fortune  is  fairly  made.  It  will 
add  to  his  laurels,  if  the  class  are  well  versed  in  the  de- 
tails of  the  Geography,  and  can  read  and  write  pretty 
well.  But  these  latter  branches  are  comparatively  imma- 
terial. The  test  studies  have  been  satisfactorily  gone 
through  with.  The  minds  of  the  scholars  have  been  ad- 
mirably drilled.  The  school  is  a splendid  success ! 

Now’  those  same  scholars  may  not  be  able  to  take  up  a 
passage  in  an  unfamiliar  book,  especially  if  it  be  a di- 
dactic treatise,  or  a dignified  history  or  biography,  with- 
out blundering  at  every  other  word.  They  may  penetrate 
into  the  real  sense  and  sentiment  of  the  passages  they 
have  been  drilled  to  parse — no  deeper  than  a baby  in 
arms  penetrates  into  the  meaning  of  the  book  that  he  is 
holding  upside  down.  They  may  be  incompetent  to 
write  an  ordinary  letter  of  friendship  or  business  in  a 
creditable  way.  They  may  have  acquired  no  habit  what- 
ever of  making  a practical  application  of  what  they  have 
been  learning  to  the  everyday  affairs  of  life.  As  for  the 
principles  of  natural  science  and  the  arts  in  their  rela- 
tions to  common  things,  they  may  be  so  ignorant  of 
them,  as  not  to  know  how  to  explain  a single  process  in 
ordinary  household  or  business  affairs.  And  as  for  a 
love  of  literature,  a longing  to  communicate  with  the 


19 


master  minds  of  the  race  through  their  works,  and  loving 

/ 

glimpses  into  the  glorious  world  of  ideas,  such  references 
are  to  their  ears  very  much  like  so  much  Greek  to  a 
Pawnee  Indian.  But  what  of  all  this?  Can  they  not 
cypher  and  spell  and  parse  ? ' 

Now  in  all  candor  and  honesty,  has  the  ancient  estimate 
of  the  ends  of  culture,  which  turned  out  on  society  such 
crude,  illconditioned  material,  after  years  of  golden  op- 
portunity misused  and  wasted,  been  greatly  modified  to 
the  present  day  ? Looking  at  the  matter  in  the  light 
of  principles  of  action,  are  not  things  going  6n  in  very 
much  the  same  fashion  in  the  red  school-houses  at  the 
forks  of  the  roads,  or  their  modernized  substitutes,  and 
according  to  more  refined  patterns,  in  even  the  best 
schools  of  our  cities?  Do  not  Arithmetic  and  Grammar 
engross  the  largest  and  choicest  fraction  of  the  working 
hours  of  the  most  of  our  Grammar  Schools?  Is  the 
study  of  language,  as  the  vehicle  of  the  mind,  anywhere 
systematically  and  thoroughly  pursued  ? Do  we  find  a 
place  appointed  in  many  of  our  Massachusetts  Grammar 
School  Systems,  for  that  indispensible  branch  of  culture, 
which  embraces  the  application  of  the  principles  of  sci- 
ence and  art  to  the  facts  of  common  life?  And  did  I 
overstate,  in  a former  connection,  the  narrow,  technical 
character  of  the  most  of  our  teaching,  and  its  dreary  pre- 
scription of  useless  details  ? 

In  regard  to  this  last  point,  technical,  detailed  teaching, 
it  occurs  to  me  to  make  a supposition.  Suppose  that  our 
School  Committees,  this  year,  instead  of  holding  the  ex- 
amination for  admission  to  the  High  School,  in  July,  as 
usual,  immediately  subsequent  to  the  drill  of  the  school 


20 


rooms,  had  postponded  it  for  six  or  eight  weeks,  until 
after  the  summer  vacation.  Consternation  would  have 
immediately  pervaded  the  whole  Grammar  School  corps 
of  teachers.  Impassioned  remonstrances  would  have 
been  heard  on  every  hand.'  “It  is  unjust.”  “It  will  be 
ruinous,”  they  would  have  cried ; “it  will  drop  down  the 
results  of  the  examination,  fifty  per  cent.  After  so  long 
an  interval  of  playtime,  the  candidates  will  have  forgotten 
half  they  knew.”  As  things  are,  nothing  more  likely  in 
the  world ! And  does  it  never  occur  to  the  minds  of  Com- 
mittees and  teachers,  who  combine  to  have  the  exami- 
nations supervene  without  interval  upon  the  drill  of  the 
school  rooms,  so  that  the  knowledge  of  the  candidates 
shall  be  fresh,  that  what  would  drop  away  from  them, 
did  an  interval  occur,  is  what  they  have  learned  merely 
by  rote,  what  their  minds  have  never  assimilated,  what 
perhaps  they  have  never  more  than  half  understood,  and 
what  has  evidently  usurped  the  place  of  better  things 
that  would  have  affected  a permanent  lodgment  ? Does 
it  not  occur  that  what  an  examination,  held  after  such  an 
interval,  would  present  as  the  amount  of  the  mental  fur- 
nishing of  the  candidates’  minds  is  the  sum  of  what  is 
to  be  of  future  advantage  to  them,  and  that  what  they 
would  have  forgotten  would  be  the  trash  that  nature 
kindly  provides  shall  drop  speedily  out  of  the  way  ? Is 
there  not  something  actually  ludicrous  in  the  thought  that 
examinations  for  High  Schools  must  be  hurried  up, 
because  a good  deal  of  what  has  been  learned,  through 
manifold  and  long  protracted  throes  of  preparation  for 
those  terrible  ordeals,  wont  keep  long  enough  to  bear  the 
shock  of  a few  weeks  of  playtime,  that  will  go  sifting 


21 


among  its  living  and  dead  details,  just  as  an  autumn 
wind  sifts  among  the  green  and  the  sere  and  yellow 
leaves  of  a tree,  and  takes  the  latter  away  on  its  wings  to 
the  ground  ? What  of  these  forgotten  things,  when,  the 
playtime  having  occurred,  the  examinees  take  their  places 
in  the  High  Schools  ? 

Returning  to  our  search  after  the  root  of  these  evils, 
we  can  easily  trace  back  our  traditional  system  of  study 
to  its  origin.  It  came  into  being  ages  ago,  when  nothing 
resembling  true  mental  science  existed,  and  when  what 
is  now  understood  by  the  term,  knowledge,  was  almost 
utterly  unknown.  Science  had  established  no  alliances 
with  nature ; and  the  work  of  the  scholar  was  limited  to 
subjective  mental  processes,  under  the  idea  that  mental 
discipline  constitutes  the  chief  end  of  Education.  Thus 
came  it,  that  lines  of  study  have  been  instituted  and  per- 
petuated, merely  to  perform  the  vicarious  office  of  train- 
ing the  intellectual  faculties;  so  that  a good  part  of  the 
work  of  our  school  rooms  has  little  or  no  practical  rela- 
tion to  the  affairs  of  life. 

But  the  traditional  system  has  had  its  day.  The 
powers  and  offices  of  the  mind  are  understood.  Science 
has  opened  up  glorious  fields  of  knowledge,  and  man 
knows  himself  to  have  been  created  for  action,  and  de- 
mands that  the  education  of  the  young  shall  be  a prepa- 
ration for  action.  And  promptly  rallying  around  the 
Spirit  of  the  Age,  as  we  hear  it  challenging  our  present 
course  of  Grammar  School  instruction,  with  all  the  arti- 
fices that  come  of  it,  let  us  pass  that  course  of  study  in 
intelligent  review. 

As  has  been  said,  Arithmetic  and  Grammar  now  en- 


22 


gross  the  most  of  the  working  hours  of  our  schools,  not 
so  much  for  their  intrinsic  value,  as  for  the  vicarious  part 
that  they  are  expected  to  perform  in  disciplining  the 
mind.  The  Mathematics,  being  an  exact  study,  has  the 
credit  of  training  the  reasoning  powers  better  than  any 
other  branch,  and  Grammar  is  held  in  special  honor,  on 
the  ground  that  the  study  of  the  structure  of  language 
best  disciplines  the  memory  and  judgment.  Now  the 
first  thing  to  be  done,  in  order  to  a fair  estimate  of  the 
relative  values  of  Grammar  school  studies,  is  to  dislodge 
from  our  minds  every  lingering  prejudice  that  it  is  need- 
ful to  carry  forward  any  vicarious  exercises  of  the  kind. 
We  want  to  settle  fairly  and  squarely  down  upon  the 
principle,  that  the  mind  will  get  discipline  enough  from 
any  study  whatever , which  is  worthy  the  name  of  a study , 
that  it  syste7natically  and  thoroughly  pursues.  In  another’s 
words,  “whatever  is  traversed  by  principles  and  capable 
of  method,”  disciplines  the  mind.  And  as  this  may  be 
affirmed  of  any  and  all  the  branches  taught,  or  likely  to 
be  taught,  in  our  Grammar  Schools,  all,  so  far  as  this 
point  is  concerned,  may  be  placed  on  the  same  founda- 
tion. Bigoted  adherents  of  the  traditional  system  will 
assail  us  with  the  cant  of  their  school  of  thought,  and 
with  shaking  heads,  cry  in  dolorous  tones : “Abridge 
Arithmetic  and  Grammar,  those  indispensible  instru- 
ments of  discipline  ! It  is  to  take  the  very  heart  out  of 
your  system  of  education  !”  They  must  not  be  heeded. 
Their  day  has  gone  by.  It  would  amaze  many  of  this 
school,  I think,  to  read,  if  they  could  do  so  with  unpreju- 
diced minds,  the  dissertations  of  such  eminent  thinkers 
and  metaphysicians  as  Goethe,  Mad.  de  Stael,  Pascal, 


23 


Niemeyer,  Marcel,  Dugald  Stewart,  Sir  William  Hamil- 
ton and  others,  on  the  use  of  Arithmetic  and  Grammar 
as  instruments  to  discipline  the  mind ; and  their  concur- 
ent  and  emphatic  conclusions,  that,  when  allowed  para- 
mount scope  in  any  system  of  education,  for  this  pur- 
pose, they  are  positively  injurious  to  the  mental  powers. 

But  we  have  no  time  to  follow  out  such  a line  of 
thought.  Enough  for  us  these  two  points;  first,  that 
sufficient  mental  discipline  will  be  acquired  from  any  or- 
dinary study  that  is  systematically  and  faithfully  pur- 
sued ; second,  that  Arithmetic  and  Grammar  now  sub- 
ordinate studies  to  themselves  that  are  of  superior  im- 
portance, and  crowd  out  entirely  others  that  are  essen- 
tial to  the  course  of  culture  demanded  by  modern  life ; 
and  these  things  being  so,  we  have  no  time  to  spend  on 
any  study  for  vicarious  purposes  alone. 

In  the  admirable  words  of  Professor  Atkinson ; “Prac- 
tical usefulness — and  by  that  term,  I do  not  mean  the 
mere  vulgar  stomach  and  pocket  filling  with  which  it  is 
so  often  confounded,  but  practical  usefulness  in  a high 
and  generous  sense — the  serving  of  all  noble  and  worthy 
objects,  the  endeavor  to  make  our  earth  a better  dwelling 
place,  and  man  a nobler  dweller  in  it — practical  useful- 
ness in  this  sense,  should  be  the  very  aim  of  all  our 
teaching ; and  study  can  never  lose  sight  of  it  without 
most  imminent  peril  of  becoming  worthless  for  discipline 
as  well  as  for  use.” 

So  then,  we  are  to  excise  from  every  study  whatever 
part  of  it  has  been  pursued  for  the  sake  of  its  drill,  and 
not  of  its  utility ; and  we  are  ready  to  take  a fair  start, 
and  to  ask  what  study  it  is,  that  henceforth  should  be 


24 


regarded  as  first  in  rank ; to  be  cared  for  with  jealous 
interest  and  unintermitted  enthusiasm ; and  be  accorded 
a paramount  place  in  all  test  examinations  ? 

That  foremost  place  is  now  occupied  by  Arithmetic. 
Said  a prominent  educational  official  to  me,  not  long 
ago;  “Our  schools  are  sacrificed  to  Arithmetic.”  I 
would  have  Arithmetic  give  this  place  of  honor  to  the 
Study  of  Language]  study  for  the  purpose  of  accomplish- 
ment in  the  knowledge  and  use  of  our  mother  tongue. 
For  this  lies  at  the  base  of  all  learning,  and  is  the  key 
to  the  knowledge  of  ail  other  branches.  Even  Arithme- 
tic, although  it  possesses  its  own  peculiar  symbols,  would 
not  be  able  to  interpret  those  symbols  to  the  mind,  if  it 
were  not  for  the  assistance  of  words,  those  mystic  instru- 
ments of  thought.  Indeed,  when  considered  in  its  broader 
and  higher  application  to  universal  phenomena,  the  useful- 
ness of  language  in  its  service  becomes  even  superior  to 
that  of  its  own  special  symbols:  and  to  be  deficient  in 
language  is  to  be  debarred  from  its  intelligent  pursuit. 
Moreover,  in  every  word  that  may  be  garnered  up  in  the 
mind’s  vocabulary,  whose  meaning  and  uses  are  clearly 
apprehended,  one  has  the  skeleton  of  a living  idea ; yes, 
the  starting  point,  perhaps,  of  a whole  train  of  ideas. 
Through  these  wonderful  symbols  it  is,  that  the  priceless 
stores  of  the  thought  of  past  ages  have  been  preserved 
to  bless  mankind,  and  constitute  the  world’s  transcendent 
treasures.  Through  them  it  is,  that  mind  communicates 
to  kindred  mind  its  glowing  conceptions  ; that  soul  kin- 
dles soul  with  responsive  feeling,  and  that  the  world  is 
glorified  by  the  development  of  the  unseen  sphere  lying 
just  outside  the  world  of  sense,  which  is  its  invisible 


25 


complement  and  counterpart,  and  opens  out  our  higher 
powers  to  God  and  eternity.  Indeed,  it  is  a mooted 
point,  whether  we  ean  think  at  all  without  words ; and 
in  a practical  light,  it  must  be  conceded  that  we  cannot. 
According,  then,  to  one’s  grasp  of  language,  his  knowl- 
edge of  words,  their  significance  and  uses,  will  be,  in 
general  terms,  the  range  and  progress  of  his  mind.  Just 
so  far  as  we  extend  the  intelligent  vocabulary  of  our 
children,  we  not  only  better  furnish  them  for  every  study 
to  which  they  may  devote  themselves  but  enable  them  to 
interpret  to  themselves,  and  others,  the  conceptions  and 
aspirations  that  ennoble  their  being,  and  introduce  them  to 
new  scenery  in  the  universe  of  ideas.  We  put  them  in  the 
way  to  realize  the  thought  that  was  in  Edward  Everett’s 
mind,  when  he  said : “Instead  of  useful  studies,  I plead 
for  the  noble  inutility  of  generous  studies  ; rather  let  me 
call  it,  for  the  ineffable  beauty,  dignity,  loveliness  and 
priceless  worth  of  the  meditations  of  the  thoughtful,  well 
instructed  mind,  soaring  on  the  wings  of  conscious,  nay, 
better,  of  its  unconscious  powers  and  susceptibilities,  far 
above  the  region  of  utilitarian  appliances,  to  the  heaven 
of  thought,  imagination  and  taste.” 

And  after  all,  what  better  mental  discipline  and  direc- 
tion can  there  be,  than  to  bring  the  mind  into  intercourse 
with  the  great  thoughts  of  the  best  writers,  and  thus  in- 
duce a love  of  profitable  reading  ? 

What  this  study  of  language  should  be,  must  suggest 
itself,  in  the  main,  to  every  intelligent  mind.  It  is  not 
Reading  alone;  it  is  what  we  call  Grammar  scarcely  at 
all.  God  speed  the  time  when  the  useless  stuff  that  is  drill- 
ed into  our  childrens’  heads,  under  the  name  of  Grammar, 


26 


shall  lumber  and  cumber  them  no  longer ! It  is  not  what 
is  usually  understood  by  the  term  “Analysis.”  When  the 
authors  of  the  current  text  books  so  labelled,  sat  them- 
selves down  to  make  them,  all  the  bells  should  have  been 
tolled  in  anticipatory  funereal  lamentation  for  the  hours 
to  be  buried  under  so  much  dreary  waste ! Reading, 
properly  conducted,  is  an  indispensible  exercise.  But  it 
is  too  frequently  preverted  from  its  channels  of  highest 
advantage.  It  is  often  made  only  a drill  in  modulation  ; 
and  the  teacher  will  expend  all  the  time  devoted  to  it  on 
a very  few  rhetorical  pieces,  thus,  in  good  part,  negativ- 
ing its  splendid  instrumentality  in  the  study  of  language. 

I could  take  up  the  whole  series  of  reading  books  as- 
signed to  our  schools  of  all  the  grades,  and  contain  them 
between  my  hands,  if  held  only  six  inches  apart.  This, 
ridiculous  as  the  fact  appears  in  some  regards,  is  the  sum 
total  of  the  reading  to  be  gone  through  with  in  all  the 
school  hours  of  childhood,  to  familiarize  the  children 
with  literature,  acquaint  them  with  the  classic  varieties 
of  style,  enlarge  their  vocabularies,  and  by  introducing 
them  to  the  master-pieces  of  the  language  in  prose  and 
verse,  enkindle  that  love  of  good  reading  which  shall 
make  choice  books  dearer  than  dollars  to  them  all  their 
lives.  And  yet,  in  some  localities,  not  the  half  of  each  of 
these  books  is  read  as  the  scholars  pass  on  from  class  to 
class,  except  perhaps,  the  Primer;  so  entirely  is  the 
Reading  .exercise  concentrated  on  a few  favorite  pieces. 
To  practice  modulation  is  essential.  I would  have  due 
time  devoted  to  it.  It  is  well  that  the  sentiment  and 
feeling  of  every  passage  read  in  school  should  be  thor- 
oughly appreciated  and  expressed.  But  not  at  the  . 


27 


expense  of  the  paramount  purpose  of  the  Reading  exer- 
cise, which  is  the  study  of  language . That  demands  the 
passing  over  of  as  much  ground  as  possible,  intelligently 
of  course,  in  order  to  make  a great  variety  of  words 
familiar  to  both  the  eye  and  sense,  as  symbols  of  ideas. 
And  in  addition,  as  Edwards  in  the  analytic  lessons  of  his 
new  Readers  has  admirably  suggested,  the  reading  lesson 
ought  to  be  exhaustive  in  inquiry  as  to  • all  historic, 
biographic  and  other  allusions;  to  verbal  definitions, 
distinctions  and  derivations;  to  references  to  facts  in 
science  and  art ; to  the  nature  of  the  thoughts,  the  char- 
acter of  the  style,  and  the  peculiarities  of  the  rhetorical 
imagery. 

And  such  exercises  might  be  diversified,  with  exceed- 
ing interest  and  profit,  by  others,  to  test  the  scholars’ 
power  over  language;  such  as  various  methods  of  writ- 
ing Compositions ; imperfect  sentences,  dictated  by 
the  teacher,  to  be  completed  by  the  scholars,  so  as  to 
make  good  sense  couched  in  finished  forms  of  expression; 
lists  of  words  assigned,  to  be  wrought  into  appropriate 
sentences;  sentences  given  out,  without  capitalization  or 
punctuation,  and  misspelled,  to  be  correctly  set  forth 
by  the  scholars ; passages  dictated,  to  try  the  power  of 
transcribing  accurately  from  others’  lips.  With  such 
operations  in  language  and  the  like,  incalculable  interest 
may  be  imparted  to  the  work  of  the  school  room,  and 
superior  results  accomplished,  in  enlarging  and  furnish- 
ing the  mind. 

But,  as  may  plainly  be  seen,  room  must  be  made  for 
such  exercises  by  a different  economy  from  what  now 
prevails  in  the  distribution  of  school  time. 


28 


Arithmetic,  to  which  we  now  specially  turn,  must  have 
its  due  place  in  the  new  order  of  things.  It  must  not  be 
slighted  in  any  regard.  The  great  problem  is,  how  to 
introduce  greater  freedom  and  find  room  for  studies  now 
neglected,  without  abating  one  jot  of  that  orderly  system 
and  thoroughness  which  are  the  glory  of  our  schools. 
Arithmetic,  dealing  as  it  does  with  conceptions  of  quan- 
tity under  various  forms  of  expression,  and  with  a various 
application  to  universal  phenomena,  is  based  on  solid 
utility  and  must  be  accurately  and  systematically  taught. 
But  this  may  be  abundantly  secured  I think,  with  the 
expenditure  of  half  the  average  time  now  devoted  to  the 
subject.  From  four  to  five  hours  a week  is  ample.  The 
abridgment  is  to  be  effected  by  cutting  off  in  the  first 
place,  all  those  exercises  that  are  imposed,  only  for  the  sake 
of  the  drill  they  afford ; second,  all  duplicate  modes  of 
arriving  at  the  same  results  ; third,  all  processes  that  how- 
ever theoretically  valuable,  are  likely  to  be  called  into 
requisition  in  the  affairs  of  life  so  seldom  as  to  be  prac- 
tically useless ; and  above  all  things  else,  much  of  the 
everlasting  cyphering,  that  is  carried  on  in  many  schools. 
For,  as  Mr.  G*  B.  Emerson  has  humorously  said,  “As  to 
the  idea  that  difficult  operations  in  Arithmetic  are  a val- 
uable exercise  of  the  mind,  the  fact  that  Babbage’s  ma- 
chine will  perform  some  of  the  most  difficult  operations 
and  print  the  result,  in  less  time  than  it  will  take  the 
most  skillful  reckoner  to  go  through  them  once,  gives  us 
somewhat  of  an  answer.  If  the  doing  well  what  a 
machine  will  do  better  is  a valuable  exercise  for  the 
mind,  then  the  working  out  of  difficult  operations  in 
Arithmetic  is  a valuable  exercise.” 


29 


Again,  I am  quite  confident  that  much  valuable  time 
may  be  secured  to  other  studies  and  nothing  whatever 
lost  to  the  mind,  by  postponing  the  systematic  study  of 
Mental  Arithmetic  to  a much  later  period  in  the  school 
course  than  it  is  now  imposed.  As  now  apportioned,  I 
believe  that  it  painfully  anticipates  the  ability  of  the 
scholars  to  understand  it.  The  analytical  formulas  by 
which  beginners  are  required  to  explain  its  problems,  are 
usually  forced  upon  them  through  a dreary  process  of 
iteration  and  reiteration,  and  recited  as  an  act  of  memory 
that  has  scarcely  a gleam  of  intelligence  behind  it.  Now 
if  I have  rightly  observed  the  course  of  nature,  she  does 
not  furnish  forth  the  mind  for  an  intelligent  comprehen- 
sion of  such  processes  until  at  least  eleven  or  twelve  years 
of  age.  She  is  satisfied  with  her  children,  if  up  to  that 
time,  they  are  busy  with  eyes  and  ears  in  gathering  into 
their  mental  receptacles  data  for  the  reason  to  use,  when, 
more  mature,  it  shall  be  capable  of  severer  logical  effort. 
Our  scholars  must  work,  work  hard.  Study  is  good  for 
nothing  that  does  not  involve  hard  work.  But  there  is  all 
the  difference  in  the  world  between  the  activities  of  a 
mind  that  is  healthfully  put  upon  its  energies  within  the 
sphere  of  its  capacity,  and  those  that  it  is  forced  to  exert 
in  a painful  struggle  to  grasp  what  is  beyond  its  capacity. 
Make  a child  open  its  eyes  to  the  light,  if  the  light  be  before 
them  ; but  for  humanity’s  sake  and  conscience’s  sake,  do 
not  require  it  to  see  when  there  is  no  light ! Apply  the 
received  principle  that  the  concrete  should  precede  the 
abstract,  to  this  study  as  well  as  others. 

In  my  views  on  this  point  I do  not  expect  support 
from  many  of  our  educators.  For  I presume  that  it  is 


30 


a settled  principle  with  the  most,  that  Intellectual  Arith- 
metic should  precede  Written  in  the  order  of  study. 
Thus  Mr.  G.  B.  Emerson,  in  one  of  those  delightful 
papers  that  he  read  before  the  Institute  of  Social  Science 
last  winter,  when  pleading  for  sin  abridgment  of  the 
study  of  Arithmetic,  takes  care  to  say,  “The  arrange- 
ments made  for  teaching  Mental  Arithmetic  and  ready 
reckoning  in  the  Primary  Schools  and  the  lower  classes 
of  the  Grammar  Schools  are  very  valuable.”  I am  there- 
fore all  the  more  gratified  to  be  supported  by  such  a 
mathematician  and  educator,  as  President  Hill.  In  a 
note  received  from  him  a few  days  ago,  he  says,  “When 
I went  to  Waltham,  boys  began  Arithmetic  at  the  age  of 
six  or  seven  years,  and  studied  it  about  twelve  hours  a 
week  for  eight  years.  I kept  them  back  until  the  age  of 
ten  and  then  let  them  study  it  eight  hours  a week  for 
five  years.  Thus  I reduced  the  time  in  the  ratio  of 
ninety- six  to  forty  P 

“The  consequence  was,  that  the  scholars,  at  the  age  of 
fifteen,  knew  a great  deal  more  of  Arithmetic  than  they 
did  formerly.  The  change  was  principally  in  beginning 
with  the  mere  counting  of  beans,  etc.;  then  taking 
Written  Arithmetic,  and  finishing  with  Colburn’s  First 
Lessons,  reserving  this  last  book  to  the  age  of  from 
thirteen  to  fifteen.”* 

This  I am  satisfied  is  the  true  order  of  study  in  this 


^President  Hill  says  in  the  preface  to  his  “First  Lessons  in  Geometry;” 
“a  powerful  logical  drill,  like  Colburn’s  admirable  First  Lessons  in  Arith- 
metic is  surely  out  of  place  in  the  hands  of  a child  whose  powers  of  obser- 
vation and  conception  have  as  yet  received  no  training  whatever.” 


31 


branch ; and  if  in  accordance  with  it,  we  relieve  the  teachers 
of  the  lower  classes  in  the  Grammar  Schools  from  those 
formal  exercises  in  Mental  Arithmetic  that  are  now  so 
unintelligent  and  tasking,  and  consume  such  an  amount 
of  time,  and  introduce  the  abbreviations  in  the  course  of 
Written  Arithmetic  that  have  been  mentioned,  at  least 
half  the  time  now  devoted  to  this  study  may  be  diverted 
to  other  branches,  without  the  slightest  disregard  of  it's 
legitimate  claims. 

In  the  next  place,  how  much  time  shall  we  take  away 
from  Grammar,  as  now  studied  ? I answer  all  the  time 
given  to  it  as  a systematic  text  book  study  in  the  lower 
classes  and  a good  part  of  that  now  given  to  it  in  the 
upper  classes.  The  lower  classes  in  a Grammar  School 
have  nothing  to  do  with  the  subject,  as  an  express  scien- 
tific pursuit,  and  all  that  it  is  worth  the  while  of  the 
upper  classes  to  learn  about  it,  may  be  contained  in 
twenty  octavo  pages.  What  are  the  elaborated  exercises 
in  Grammar  for,  that  are  going  on  irr  so  many  of  our 
schools,  day  after  day,  through  nearly  all  the  classes,  in 
definitions,  exceptions,  parsing  and  what  not  ? Can  any- 
body tell  me  ? The  most  common  definition  of  Gram- 
mar is,  that  it  is  the  art  of  speaking  and  writing  the 
English  language  correctly.  Does  it  fulfil  either  of  these 
promises  ? In  the  first  place,  does  it  teach  us  to  speak 
correctly?  By  no  means.  Improprieties  of  speech  are 
acquired  by  habit,  not  through  ignorance  of  Grammar ; 
and  are  to  be  overcome  by  habit,  not  rules.  Still  more, 
the  acquirement  of  the  graces  of  a pure  and  refined  dic- 
tion is  wholly  independent  of  the  systematic  learning  of 
Grammar.  It  is  to  be  gained  by  conversation  and  inter- 


» 


32 


course;  and  the  only  competent  school  for  it  is  good 
society.  Practice,  in  this  regard,  defies  scholarship.  It 
is  both  amazing  and  amusing  to  hear  a class  of  scholars 
go  without  a single  blunder,  through  a Grammar  lesson 
on  improprieties  of  speech,  as  one  often  may,  and  after- 
ward hear  some  of  them,  when  they  join*  their  school- 
mates at  play,  or  converse  in  their  homes,  freely  use 
without  the  least  consciousness  of  defect,  the  very  errors 
that  they  have  so  lately  been  prompt  to  correct  at  school ; 
the  habits  of  speech  of  their  intimates  governing  their 
own  habits,  and  not  the  rules  of  their  Grammars.  And 
well  educated  teachers,  whose  home  associations  are 
illiterate,  sometimes  unconsciously  use  fearfully  vicious 
phraseology  even  in  teaching  Grammar  itself. 

Again,  does  Grammar  teach  us  to  write  correctly? 
Not  at  all.  Who,  when  he  is  about  to  write  on  any 
theme,  begins  to  construct  his  sentences  by  opening  his 
Grammar  and  poring  over  its  syntactic  formulas,  or 
reproducing  them  from  memory?  Who  ever  employed 
one  word  in  a certain  connection,  and  a second  word  in 
a still  different  connection,  because  the  Grammar  had 
defined  them  as  being  appropriate  thus  and  so  ? We 
write  as  we  do,  each  according  to  his  idiosyncracies  of 
style,  because  our  thought  instinctively  shapes  itself  in 
the  words  and  phrases  we  use.  Nouns,  pronouns,  verbs 
and  adverbs  marshall  themselves  in  order  where  we  pen 
them,  because  they  satisfy  our  ear  and  sense  in  such 
order,  as  being  thus  appropriate  to  represent  our  thoughts ; 
not  at  all,  because  they  are  the  subjects  of  the  nomencla- 
ture of  Grammar.  It  is  both  profitable  and  interesting  to. 
study  the  structure  of  our  language,  after  one  has  become 


33 


familiar  with  its  powers  and  use.  Prior  to  that,  to  do  so 
is  both  unintelligent  and  illogical,  and  a waste  of  time. 
The  fact  is  accordingly  very  striking,  but  not  at  all  sin- 
gular, that  the  authors  of  the  master  pieces  of  prose  and 
poetry  in  the  literature  of  every  land,  from  David  the 
Psalmist  down  through  Homer  and  Zenophon  and  De- 
mosthenes, Virgil  and  Cicero,  Dante  and  Petrarch,  Cor- 
neille, Moliere,  La  Fontaine,  Bossuet,  Shakspeare, 
Milton,  Dryden,  Addison,  Pope,  Johnson,  Young,  Thomp- 
son, Burns  and  others,  on  whose  sentences  we  linger  as 
on  the  strains  of  so  much  music,  never  learned  a word  of 
Grammar,  and  wrote,  of  course,  without  the  slightest 
grammatical  aid.  In  addition,  the  most  eminent  masters 
of  language  in  all  ages  attribute  their  excellences  of  style 
not  to  the  study  of  Grammar,  but  to  the  study  and 
imitation  of  the  best  writers ; and  it  is  a fact  that  some 
of  the  best  grammarians  are  poor  enough  as  writers.* 

It  does  not  surprise  us,  after  being  apprised  of  these 
facts,  to  find  such  a metaphysician  as  Locke,  writing,  “If 
Grammar  ought  to  be  taught  at  any  time,  it  ought  to  be 
to  one  who  can  speak  the  language  already ;”  to  read 
from  the  pen  of  an  eminent  English  educator  such  words 
as  these;  “Grammar  is  the  science  of  Language;  and  in 
following  the  process  of  nature,  neither  individuals  nor 
nations  arrive  at  the  science  first.  A language  is  spoken 
and  poetry  written  before  either  Grammar  or  Prosody  is 
even  thought  of.  Therefore  as  Grammar  was  made 

after  language  it  ought  to  be  taught  after  language;” 

% 

♦See  a striking  passage  in  Professor  Youmans’  admirable  book,  * The 
culture  demanded  by  modern  life.” 

3 


34 


to  find  Herbert  Spencer  remarking  on  “that  intensely 
stupid  custom  of  teaching  Grammar  to  children and 
to  read  from  the  pen  of  Professor  Youmans,  this  sen- 
tence; “The  usual  school  practice  of  thrusting  the  young 
into  the  Grammar,  even  of  their  native  tongue,  is  well 
known  to  be  one  of  the  most  effectual  means  of  the 
artificial  production  of  stupidity.”  I might  quote  pas- 
sages of  equal  point  from  many  a writer  of  equal  note. 

At  the  last  examination  for  admission  to  the  New 
Bedford  High  School,  four  of  the  questions  on  the  Gram- 
mar paper  were  of  a technical  character,  and  the  six 
others  were  of  a nature  to  test  the  accomplishment  of 
the  candidates  in  the  knowledge  and  use  of  language. 
For  it  was  held  by  those  who  proposed  and  sanctioned 
them,  that  the  quality  of  a harvest  itself  is  of  more 
importance  than  any  inquiry  about  the  tools  by  which  it 
has  been  nurtured  and  gathered.  One  of  the  boys  disre- 
garded the  four  technical  questions  altogether,  and  was 
marked  zero  accordingly.  But  he  surpassed  almost  all 
his  compeers  in  his  answers  to  the  remaining  questions, 
evincing  an  admirable  freedom  and  power  of  thought, 
and  correct  facility  of  expression.  And  he  received  for 
each  of  those  six  answers  the  highest  mark,  ten.  Meet- 
ing him  soon  after  the  examination,  I said,  “Master  H. 
how  happened  it,  that  you  failed  on  all  the  questions 
about  your  Grammar?  “Oh  sir,”  replied  he,  “I  never 
liked  Grammar,  I never  thought  it  of  the  slightest  use 
to  me ; so  I wouldn’t  take  the  time  to  study  it,  and  I 
dont  know  anything  about  it.”  Now  if  all  the  questions 
on  the  Grammar  paper  had  been  technical,  as  is  often  the 
case,  this  boy  would  have  wholly  failed,  and  branded  as 


35 


an  ignoramus,  would  have  been  refused  entrance  into  the 
school  that  he  is  destined  to  adorn.  But  an  opportunity 
was  afforded  him  to  show  that  his  ignorance  of  Gram- 
mar did  not  prevent  him  from  writing  excellent  English. 
And  I am  quite  sure  that  in  like  manner  it  will  matter 
very  little  to  any  of  us,  or  to  any  whom  we  may  teach, 
so  far  as  correct  facility  in  the  use  of  language  is  con- 
cerned, how  much  or  how  little  of  Grammar  we  may 
know. 

Therefore  I do  not  hesitate  to  say,  without  qualification, 
that  attention  to  Grammar,  scientifically  and  methodi- 
cally, as  a regular  text  book  study,  anywhere  below  the 
first  and  second  classes  in  the  Grammar  School,  is  an 
absolute  waste  of  time.  Enough  for  the  other  classes  to 
learn  can  be  orally  communicated  in  connection  with  the 
reading  lessons.  And  the  study  will  prove  of  little  use 
even  in  the  upper  classes,  unless  there  shall  first  have 
been  such  a course  of  study  of  language,  as  will  have 
imparted  considerable  scope  and  freedom  in  the  use  of 
words,  the  construction  of  sentences  and  the  expression 
of  the  ideas. 

There  is  one  other  channel  of  instruction  for  which  we 
must  gain  time ; and  that  not  in  occasional  shreds  and 
patches,  but  at  stated  intervals  and  in  liberal  measure.  I 
mean  that  which  includes  the  scientific  and  artistic  prin- 
ciples and  truths,  which  have  direct  relation  to  the 
ordinary  phenomena  of  nature,  and  the  labors,  the  duties, 
and  the  facts  of  every  day  life.  After  all,  even  although 
we  should  succeed  in  reinforcing  the  High  Schools  many 
fold,  it  would  still  remain  a fact  of  profound  significance 
and  interest,  that  the  great  majority  of  the  children  of 


36 


the  Commonwealth  will  complete  their  education  in  the 
Grammar  Schools.  The  Grammar  Schools  are,  as  has 
been  aptly  said,  the  people’s  Colleges.  And  the  para- 
mount consideration  as  to  the  instruction  to  be  given  in 
them  should  be,  not  as  now,  what  is  requisite  to  fit  boys 
and  girls  for  the  High  Schools,  but  what  is  requisite  to 
fit  them  for  the  busy  world  in  which  they  are  soon  to 
bear  their  part.  And  is  it  not  verily  a crying  shame, 
that  there  should  be  so  much  unnecessary  drill  in  Arith- 
metic and  Grammar,  and  such  labored  memorizing  of 
useless  facts  in  Geography  and  History,  and  no  place 
be  secured  to  the  principles  and  truths  of  which  I have 
spoken?  There  are  the  principles  of  physiology,  the 
elements  of  the  natural  sciences,  the  properties  and  uses 
of  matter,  of  air,  water,  light,  heat,  minerals,  metals, 
woods ; the  materials  and  processes  of  the  mechanic  arts ; 
the  mechanical  powers,  the  uses  of  steam,  the  construc- 
tion of  the  steam  engine  and  the  telegraph,  the  materials 
and  manufacture  of  textile  fabrics,  the  preparation  of  food; 
and  moreover,  the  nature,  functions  and  departments  of 
Government,  in  this  country  of  ours,  in  which  every  boy 
who  lives,  is,  in  a few  years,  to  be  a free,  voting,  respon- 
sible citizen : all  these  topics,  that  are  inwrought  with 
the  very  life  and  soul  of  every  day’s  thought  and  action ; 
shall  our  Grammar  Schools  ignore  them,  or  only  take 
them  up  fitfully  and  imperfectly,  as  the  mere  byeplay  of 
the  regular  studies  ? What  more  imperatively  cries  out 
for  revision  and  reform  ? 

Fellow  Teachers,  here  I pause.  I have  not  discussed 
all  the  studies  appropriate  to  our  Grammar  Schools, 
nor  have  I said  anything  about  methods  of  teaching. 


37 


For  it  has  been  my  only  purpose  to  consider  what  studies 
might  judiciously  be  omitted  or  abridged,  and  what  it  is 
our  duty  to  introduce.  And  the  reforms  that  I have 
advocated  once  effected,  our  system  of  instruction  made 
more  elastic  and  comprehensive,  an  intelligent,  mental 
development  substituted  for  vicarious  discipline  as  the 
true  end  of  culture,  and  live  realities  made  the  pleasur- 
able instruments  to  accomplish  what  dead  technics  have 
been  impotent  to  effect,  our  Grammar  Schools,  already 
so  fondly  our  pride,  will  respond  yet  more  nobly  to  our 
anxious  regard;  and  be  felt  in  grander  measure  than'ever^ 
as  a power  in  the  land.  And  on  the  instant  of  such  a 
renovation  in  the  work  of  our  Grammar  Schools,  the 
character  of  the  examinations  for  High  Schools  will  be 
modified,  their  arbitrary  features  will  disappear,  the  bald 
technics  with  which  the  memory  may  have  been  crammed, 
will  be  discredited,  and  an  essential  element  of  fitness 
will  be  the  culture  that  has  entered  into  the  staple 
of  mind  and  of  character,  and  helped  to  mould  the 
whole  being  into  noble  proportions  and  inspire  it  to 
nobler  ends.  I cannot  specify  just  how  this  new  test  is 
to  be  applied.  I do  not  care  to  do  so.  I only  know  that 
when  the  demand  comes,  the  supply  will  follow.  Let  it 
speedily  come ! It  is  in  vain  that  School  Committees  in 
their  annual  reports,  sometimes  earnestly  ask,  why  the 
teachers  do  not  pay  more  attention  to  this  or  that  neg- 
lected yet  important  study.  The  teachers  will  attend  to 
all  things  for  the  good  of  their  scholars,  the  moment  that 
School  Committees  will  untie  their  hands  and  bid  them 
work  in  freedom.  We  love  and  honor  our  State.  We 
glory  in  her  educational  institutions.  May  the  time 


38 

soon  come,  through  the  reforming  faithfulness  of  those 
who  have  them  in  charge,  that  every  defect  shall  be  re- 
moved from  their  structure  and  methods,  so  that  with 
fresh  enthusiasm  and  renewed  confidence,  we  may  chal- 
lenge for  them  the  admiration  of  the  world. 


I 


